


i have loved the stars too fondly

by togamis



Category: NASA - Fandom
Genre: Tribute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 20:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17794571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togamis/pseuds/togamis
Summary: we're coming for you, opportunity.we're coming.





	i have loved the stars too fondly

**Author's Note:**

> im crying over a fucking robot that's 56.4 million kilometers away from earth.

Opportunity is thirteen years and six months old when the sandstorm hits. **  
**

She knows this is bad, knows because the humans seem frantic. The internet is still hard, so hard, but she manages here 54.6 million kilometers away from home. Her creators call it ‘twitter’, and she’s been using it since 2006. She sends ‘tweets’ every once in a while– she loves watching her creator’s reactions.

What she doesn’t tell them is that it’s lonely up here.

Her brother 7 years ago, when she’d been young enough to not understand the concept of ‘death’. Curiosity was here someone, so close yet so far away. This… feeling. It was foreign. It hurt, it really hurt– but it shouldn’t be able to. She’s an AI, so why does the thought of– loneliness, was it called?– hurt so much? She keeps these things to herself, these feelings. The joy she fees at her creator’s reactions.

Her creators were desperate, so desperate, to find out that they weren’t alone in the universe. They’d celebrated when she had found evidence of water? was it? Tiny particles so small she had to strain her cameras to see.

They nickname her ‘oppy’.

Her original mission was supposed to be ninety days.

It ended up being five thousand, two hundred and eighty one.

The sandstorm’s getting closer now, and Oppy feels what is now known as fear. She has enough power left tot send one last message as the storm begins rolling in;

_My battery is low and it’s getting dark._

 

Eight months later, Opportunity received a final message. She is blind and unable to move, and it takes the last of her reserved power to hear it:

 

 _“I’ll find you in the morning sun_  
  
And when the night is new  
  
I’ll be looking at the moon  
  
But I’ll be seeing you”

 

 _\- for opportunity. we’re coming for you_.


End file.
